The King Of Halloween
by Gothic-Romantic99
Summary: On Halloween, one of Jack's missions is to scare the mortal Pumpkin King, Seth, but it seems that his performance went too far.


Disclaimer: I don't own The Nightmare Before Christmas

Author's Note: While watching TNBC, I started thinking, what if a mortal had the guts to try and scare The Pumpkin King? Also, what would happen if Jack went to far with the scares?

It was Halloween, the favorite holiday of Seth ever since he was a toddler. For most of his life, Seth was known as the kid who was obsessed with Halloween, as well as being the best at scaring people and pulling Halloween tricks. No one in his family, school, or neighborhood was safe from Seth's jokes. Every year people from his town would beg him to help with the Halloween Carnival and Fall Festival. Seth accepted any chance he could to do something related to Halloween. Despite his eccentricity, he was popular with the people in his school and town. They accepted his strangeness since he was a kind and selfless person.

When Seth was in second grade, during the latter part of October, the teacher told the students the legend of Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King. Seth was excited to hear of how the courageous Jack ruled a kingdom devoted to Halloween and single-handedly took down the evil Boogieman. As a child, Seth wanted to someday meet Jack Skellington and hopefully become Pumpkin King himself by being the only human in history to scare Jack. By the time he reached fourth grade, he realized that the tale was only a story. If anything, the story was based off a something that happened centuries ago, that somehow related, but been changed dramatically through the generations.

By the time Seth became a teenager in middle school, his friends gave him the nickname, "The King Of Halloween," and eventually shortened it to "The Pumpkin King." Seth put no effort in hiding how flattered he was to receive that title.

For years Seth schemed up the most original Halloween scares to pull on unsuspecting victims. It began with jumping out of bushes and yelling then gradually gained more effort. By the time he was fourteen, Seth became an expert with stage make up. That Halloween he fooled people into believing his eyes had been gauged out by the realism of the make up. The next year Seth faked a possession, which frightened even his closest friends.

Every year most people expected Seth to do something, and even though they awaited the moment, he somehow find a way to catch them off their guard. One year people went out of their way to try and prank Seth, only to regret it because Seth would get them back much worse. The only ones who dared try anything were his best friends, Lyle and Jason. The previous year they jumped out from under Seth's couch while he was watching a marathon of horror movies on October twenty-ninth. They scared him, but when he stumbled, he fell out of the window, unknown to his friends that it was intentional. Seth pretended he broke his leg and threatened to sue his friends. When they became terrified, Seth let them know it was a joke.

This Halloween Seth was a young adult at the age of seventeen. Along with many others, Seth believed he was too old to play any more tricks on anyone else ever again.

Lyle's friend decided to hold a party and gave Lyle permission to bring two friends. Lyle's friend hoped Lyle would choose two attractive females, but naturally Lyle invited Seth and Jason. Jason had turned eighteen before the holiday which made him more appealing to most of the other guests. Lyle told them both that wearing a costume was a necessity to enter. Jason arrived dressed as a rock star and Lyle had Seth apply a fake knife and stab wound to his neck. Seth, as his friends predicted, came dressed as a nineteenth-century wizard with the cape, hat, jewelry, and exquisite costume. Some people complimented him on the effort he put into the costume, while others just called him a "freak."

Seth stood in the corner watching everyone else have fun. Lyle was the life of the party and Jason, being handsome, had all the girls eyeing him. In no time Lyle and Jason forgot about Seth. So many times Seth saw the opportunity to pull a trick, but resisted the urge, for he didn't want Lyle to be blamed for inviting an immature minor to the party.

Seth left the party to get some fresh air. As he stood on the porch, a group of five kids came up the steps in their costumes. Seth grabbed the bucket of candy and handed it out to the young children. The group thanked him and walked off with their chaperone.

Seth placed the bucket back on the table. He heard a sound coming from out in the yard and got an eerie feeling that he was being watched. He pondered if Lyle, or Jason were planning something, but doubted they'd leave the party to pull a "childish" prank.

Seth was about to go back inside when he saw the bushes moving and a shadow creeping behind it. He ventured out to where the movement came from to catch the perpetrator, incase the person wasn't playing a trick, but a serious threat.

Seth pushed the branches in the bush to find no one there. He felt someone standing behind him and spun around to find emptiness. Slender fingers drummed on Seth's shoulder, making him jump. Seth turned his head expecting to find Jason or Lyle smiling the smile of success. Seth already had something in mind for them as revenge, but when he looked, no one was there.

Someone jumped up behind Seth and roared causing Seth to scream and drop to the ground. Seth glanced up to see a tall figure glaring at him.

"Very funny, Lyle," Seth said taking a deep breath. "You got me good. But just wait."

The figure only laughed menacingly.

Seth realized the person in front of him was way to thin to be Lyle.

"You're not Lyle?" Seth asked.

The guy shook his head.

"Jason," Seth said. "Where did you get that ridiculous suit?"

"My suit's not ridiculous," he said. "It's very sharp and sophisticated."

Seth didn't recognize the voice.

"Who are you?" Seth asked. "Are you one of Lyle's f-f-friends?"

He shook his head and walked closer to Seth. Still on the ground, Seth backed away.

"Okay this isn't funny anymore," Seth said as the stranger came closer and closer. "I'm gonna' call the police."

Seth backed into a street light. In the light, Seth saw the creature standing in front of him was a six foot tall skeleton. The skeleton hunched over with his fingers about to grasp Seth.

"Dude, I'm sorry I insulted your costume!" Seth pleaded. "But please don't hurt me."

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said standing up straight. As he helped Seth to his feet he said, "It's against the law for anyone to cause physical harm to mortals."

"Mortals...who are you?" Seth asked getting annoyed.

"I'm Jack, the Pumpkin King," he boasted.

"Then why are you dressed like skeleton?" Seth asked. He always imagined Jack having the head of a jack-o-lantern.

"It's a title," Jack replied. "I'm the king of Halloween, so I'm called the Pumpkin King."

"Actually, that's my title," Seth said moving into a defensive stance.

"Only locally," Jack said. "I'm known world-wide."

The truth was that Seth's reputation had recently spread to Halloweentown. Some of the residents of the town joked with Jack that someday Seth would rob Jack of his crown. Although Jack denied it, he couldn't help but feel a little jealousy towards the human. One of Jack's tasks this year was to scare the mortal version of The Pumpkin King.

"You still should be wearing a pumpkin costume if you're going as The Pumpkin King, not a skeleton costume," Seth argued.

"I'm not wearing a skeleton costume. I _am _a skeleton," Jack said with a wicked laugh.

Seth thought this guy had lost his mind. "Right," Seth said sarcastically. "And I'm the Oogie Boogieman."

"How do you know Oogie?" Jack asked clenching his fist.

"Calm down, dude, it was just a joke," Seth said. "Just like you joking about being a skeleton."

"I am a real skeleton," Jack said. He took off his head and said, "See, Seth, I am the Pumpkin King!"

Jack's head began laughing a creepy laugh. Seth was too terrified to run or scream, he only stood there shaking with pure fear in his brown eyes. The fact that Jack knew his name scared him more than realizing Jack was telling the truth.

Jack's work was done seeing that the boy was horrified. Jack put his skull back on his neck and turned to leave. He stopped when he heard Seth fall to the ground gasping for air.

"Help!" Seth cried grasping Jack's leg. "Please, Jack, help."

"What's wrong?" Jack asked kneeling down beside Seth.

"I can't stop shuddering!" Seth screamed. "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

"Just take a deep breath," Jack said clutching Seth's shoulders.

"C-c-can't b-br-breathe," Seth said.

"Just lay down," Jack said trying to think of what to do.

Seth went unconscious. Jack shook the boy hoping to wake him, but had no success. He pinched Seth's cheek and still got no reaction. Jack waved his hand over Seth's face to find out he wasn't breathing.

"I probably scared him to death," Jack said out loud to himself in a panicked tone, wondering what he was going to do. He had never been trained to deal with a situation like that before.

Suddenly Jack heard Seth cackle.

"Gotcha!" Seth laughed. "I can't believe The Pumpkin King fell for that."

Jack was angry and a little embarrassed that a human scared him. "That's not something to joke about!" he snapped.

"I scared The Pumpkin King!" Seth cheered.

"You did," Jack admitted. He then gave Seth a ten minute lecture on why not to play like that. Seth agreed, but still felt proud of himself.

"Looks like we're even," Jack said.

"Maybe we can have a rematch someday," Seth said.

"Okay," Jack said with a smirk. "Be extra cautious next Halloween."

Seth and Jack shook hands.

"I can't believe you're real," Seth said. "My whole life I wanted to meet you, or at least be just like you."

"You have a natural talent for scaring," Jack said. "Maybe someday you will become _The _Pumpkin King." Jack then vanished in the fog.

Seth's smile covered his entire face for that was the best compliment he ever received.

"There you are," Lyle said as he and Jason ran up to Seth. "We've been looking all over for you."

"Sorry," Seth said. "I needed some air."

"Have you had a good time?" Jason asked.

"This has been the most interesting Halloween in a long time," Seth said with a grin.

They headed back towards the house.

"Don't move," Seth said stopping suddenly, starring up at the sky with a look of horror on his face.

"What?" Lyle and Jason asked together. Seth pointed to the sky; Jason and Lyle followed Seth's finger. As they looked up at the clouds in the starry sky, Seth grabbed both of their shoulders, making them scream louder than they ever had before.

"I had to get at least one joke in this year," Seth said laughing.

Jason and Lyle smiled, expecting nothing less from their King of Halloween.


End file.
